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Windows is 40 years old
- Thread starter maflynn
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Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
Since we are talking about first computers.
Mine. I still have downstairs somewhere in storage. The only storage it had was tape based storage with an option cassette tape recorder that sat next to it. I have that somewhere here too.
Mine. I still have downstairs somewhere in storage. The only storage it had was tape based storage with an option cassette tape recorder that sat next to it. I have that somewhere here too.
diamond.g
macrumors G5
I had one of those - coco. 4k of ram, made programming challenging 🙂
b0fh666
macrumors 6502a
oh no the 368 was by no means my first - I was in college already.
first one was a zilog ZX81 clone back in ... cant remember 😀
first one was a zilog ZX81 clone back in ... cant remember 😀
LOL, and here I was thinking that I would never hear the word "math coprocessor" again, LOL!
eltoslightfoot
macrumors 68040
The main thing I remember about MS-DOS was switching the expanded and extended memory around to play Command and Conquer LOL.
b0fh666
macrumors 6502a
HIMEM.SYS
EMM386.EXE
diamond.g
macrumors G5
oh the memories that invokes trying to get wing commander to run (not just that game, but you get the point).
AFAIK DX meant the mathematical coprocessor was already included in the main processor, SX, in turn, denoted the version without coprocessor.
My first computer was an IBM PC AT (286). The case looked similar to maflynn's 5150, which was its ancestor (2 generations earlier). It was subsequently upgraded with the 386DX33 mainboard plus 8MB RAM (8 individual sticks). The hard drive was updated from app. 30 MB to two ones of 128 MB (Seagate) and 300 MB (Maxtor).
Steve Adams
macrumors 68000
Totally. You were ballin' here if you have over 128mb HDD.
b0fh666
macrumors 6502a
that begun in the 486... the 386 be it DX or SX required an external chip for math (the 387)
DX meant 32-bit external bus, SX was 16-bit
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
FWIW, the original Compaq Deskpro 386 motherboard only supported the 80287, with the '287 clocked at 8MHz. Compaq offered a motherboard swap for those when the 80387s started shipping and these had the '387 clocked at 16MHz.
throAU
macrumors G4
Until very recently, Japanese businesses (I think) needed to file their tax on floppy disk.
throAU
macrumors G4
This was my first, then amiga A500, then a bunch of PCs until 2009.Since we are talking about first computers.
Mine. I still have downstairs somewhere in storage. The only storage it had was tape based storage with an option cassette tape recorder that sat next to it. I have that somewhere here too.
The Coco was a pretty under-rated machine. 6809 in it which was far more advanced than the much cheaper 6502 in the Apple II, C64, etc.
Like 2x the 6502 performance, position independent code, multiply instruction (! 😀) etc.
It was faster than a z80 and almost as fast as an 8088 at a faster clock speed.
Was almost the first CPU in the Mac, until jobs went for the much more expensive 16 bit 68000 instead.
Motorola's 6809: The Best 8-Bit?
Part 3 of the story of the Motorola 6800
thechipletter.substack.com
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IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
I'm not sure if it was tax documents, it might have been some other form of documentation that had to be filed on floppy disk. The important point was that it had to be filed on floppy disks. The scarcity of floppy disks made for a strong incentive to change that requirement.
FWIW, I've had 8", 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives with the computers I've owned.
Updating the OS has changed a lot over the years, in the early days the update was booting off a newer OS floppy, then multiple floppies to update the OS on the hard drive, to CD/DVD-ROM's and now downloading. With the size of update packages, having gigabit internet access comes in handy.
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
The Coco was also able to run Microware's OS-9 (not to be confused with MacOS 9), which supported multitasking in 64K. The Apple 1 was designed to use either the 6502 or the 6800, wonder how much microcomputer history would have changed if the Apple II used the 6800 and later upgrading to the 6809? Then again, another "what-if" is what would have changed if Zilog got the Z-800 sampling in late 1979, which would provided a simple upgrade path for CP/M machines.
Yeah I remember that. I was amazed at how I could run a multitasking system on a dual floppy system with 64k
Don't forget tape drives. We used those during the 80's when I worked as a computer tech for NCR Corp (cassette) and Wang Labs (large reel to reel) both in midrange systems and PC's. During the mid to late 80's we had switched to portable tape drives that was the faster way of updating an operating system.
IvyKing
macrumors 6502a
I've had three computers with tape drives, the first was a 40MB capacity that used te floppy disk controller - took about an hour to back up 40MB. Beat having to keep the floppy drive fed. The next two were DAT drives, where the second was adequate with the initial hard drive, but was hopelessly inadequate with the larger drives installed. By that time, USB/Firewire drives were reasonably priced. With USB-3.0, drives could handle data rates higher than 40MB per second.
Would be fun having access to a local "cloud storage" server, where local means being on the same "central office" for my ISP (Ting) - with an upload speed of 2 Gbps, uploading a terabyte would take somewhat over an hour.
Would be fun having access to a local "cloud storage" server, where local means being on the same "central office" for my ISP (Ting) - with an upload speed of 2 Gbps, uploading a terabyte would take somewhat over an hour.
I remember using this back in 1989-90 or thereabouts . Had a IBM PS/2 (think it was a PS/2 30) in my office with it installed . Saved me a ton of time and frustration . At that time , it seemed almost magical .
In all honesty, I really wanted one of those. I was semi-tempted to pick one up on ebay a few months ago. I also wanted to do the same for an IBM PC 5150, but spending money for something that will largely just collect dust didn't make good financial sense to me.
A while back , I wanted to get my hands on one of the AIO PS/2 models (25 and (I think) 40). The school district I worked for bought them by the hundreds . Always thought they were a nice design . But , like you , I couldn't see putting out the cash for something that would just occupy shelf space .